Outlook Express 6 Hangs on Start

Most of the crashes and problems in Outlook Express root from *.dbx file corruption. If you are experiencing regular startup issues with Outlook Express, this might also be the result of .dbx file corruption, generally Inbox.dbx. However, you can rename the corrupted *.dbx file to start the application, but the files still remain inaccessible and corrupt. Thus, to solve file corruption, you need to use a third-party DBX Repair tool that could efficiently recover data from a corrupted .dbx file.

For an instance, consider that you try to start Outlook Express 6, but the application and hangs with no access to emails. The issue persists even if you close the dialog box prompting for password on connection to mail server.

Cause
Outlook Express might exhibit this behavior if any of the below conditions is true:
1-dbx files are read-only
2-One or more *.dbx files are corrupted. Most of the times, such errors are encountered if Inbox.dbx file is corrupted.

Solution

You should try solving the above issue by using these methods:
1-Make sure that none of the *.dbx files is marked as read-only. To do so, exit Outlook Express and locate the Store Folder in Windows Explorer. Select all the files of the folder and right-click any of them to select its 'Properties'. Clear the 'Read-only' attribute check box.

2-If Outlook Express starts successfully, you should compact these folders
3-If you still cannot start the application, you should rename the Inbox.dbx file. Locate the file named *.dbx in Windows Explorer by including search for hidden files. Right-click the Inbox.dbx file and click to Rename. Type 'Inbox.old' to rename the file and click OK. The next time, when you start the Outlook Express, it will automatically create a new empty Inbox.dbx file. If this doesn't resolve the issue, try duplicating these steps for other *.dbx files.

4-To repair damaged *.dbx files, use a commercial Outlook Express Repair ToolDesigned to perform safe, comprehensive and absolute .dbx file repair, these DBX Repair utilities are competent to work in all cases of file corruption.